


New Years Tradition

by GenerallyHuxurious (GallifreyanOmnishambles)



Series: Kylux Cryptids AU [27]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amusement Parks, Bath Sex, Blow Jobs, Cats, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Disabled Character, Disney World & Disneyland, Established Relationship, Ghosts, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Kylo Still Has The Force, M/M, Married Couple, New Year's Eve, Paranormal Investigators, Pets, That's Not How The Force Works, Traditions, Vacation, implied animal death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 07:38:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13185396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanOmnishambles/pseuds/GenerallyHuxurious
Summary: On their first New Years together Hux and Kylo tried to sneak into Disney to enjoy the fireworks. Four years, many thousands of miles, a wedding, and more adventures than they can remember later they're back at the Magic Kingdom and this time they can actually afford to get in.This fic continues directly from the end of The Eldritch Effect.





	New Years Tradition

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fedaykin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fedaykin/gifts), [darcydent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darcydent/gifts), [squire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/squire/gifts).



> Did I say I'd finished the Eldritch Effect series? Sorry, I lied. 
> 
> This is for everyone who ever read or commented on a fic in this series. I love you all. Thank you for letting me share this.

Oh good. A bed.

With a heartfelt groan Hux collapsed face first onto the sheets.

“Don't mind him,” Kylo said while he passed the porter a tip and closed the door against his half-curious stare. 

Hux didn't care what the staff thought. Right now he didn't care about anything other than sleep. He’d been driving since Virginia, twelve hours with barely a break, and everything hurt.

The Fury was as comfortable as any faithfully restored classic car could be, meaning that the seats were barely more than glorified benches and power steering was a distant dream, but driving  _ any _ car for such a long would have fucked him up. It was his own fault but that didn’t change the fact that his knees burned, his back was made of glass and his shoulders had been replaced with red hot iron. He just wanted to sleep for a million years if it meant any relief from his body right now.

He dozed, half out of reality, while Kylo pottered around the other rooms, opening and closing every cupboard he could find. Neither of them had ever stayed at a Disney hotel before, the mundane nature of the room would have perturbed Hux too if he’d been more awake. 

But he wasn’t interested in decor. He wrapped an arm over his head and tried to give in to sleep.

Vaguely Hux was aware that the shower was running for far too long. 

There was a knock at the door. Hux chose not to answer it.

More quiet words and the smell of roast meat. 

After god knew how long Hux surfaced just enough to realise that Kylo was sitting cross legged at the foot of the bed, idly massaging his calves with one hand while the other ripped apart the whole rotisserie chicken he'd apparently ordered from room service. There was a programme playing on the tv, some cartoon about sentient rocks that he'd never understood.

“Roll over.” Kylo’s voice was muffled by the half chewed mouthful of meat, but he made his meaning clear by prodding Hux’ leg with one black painted fingernail.

“Why are you in here, instead of in the living room?” Hux grumbled. He turned over awkwardly, trying to hide the wince at his stiff thigh muscles. He didn’t want Kylo to notice his discomfort. It would only awaken an age old argument.

“Because then I wouldn’t have been here to stop you abusing your body like this?” Kylo said.

Too late. Hux rolled his eyes behind his lids, here came the usual litany of ‘I told you so’.

“You know I’m right, you’re always a grumpy fucker when you sleep on your front.” Kylo hadn’t turned to look at him. The grin was still audible in his tone all the same. Sadly so was the chewing.

Since there was absolutely no chance of Hux admitting that out loud, he just growled and pulled a pillow over his face. The mattress shifted slightly under Kylo’s weight. 

“Fully dressed too, sneakers and all, it’s like you’re trying to make yourself miserable.”

Hux was about to mutter a smart remark about some of the odd positions he’d found Kylo sleeping in over the last few years, when something like pressure moved in the region of his belt. Suddenly Hux was very aware that he was standing at half-mast- probably the result of a dream and Kylo’s hands rubbing his legs in his sleep- and something was undoing his jeans.

It wasn’t Kylo, at least not his hands, because Hux could still hear the muted sounds of eating coming from the other end of the bed. 

He kept the pillow over his face, his fingers sinking into the fluffy mass, while the fabric of his belt slithered out of the buckle and the first button of his jeans popped open. 

Try as he might, Hux had never successfully described the sensation of Kylo’s powers to other people. ‘Touching without touching’ wasn’t enough. Even the most dexterous hands had a weight and a warmth to them that travelled through the surrounding surfaces no matter how carefully they moved. 

Right now the only sensation was the movement of his clothes. The buttons seemed to move under their own power, slipping free one by one in a way that barely stimulated him at all. Somehow it was more erotic than feeling Kylo’s hands on him. 

Okay, very much not asleep now.

Distantly he heard an advert break begin on the television before the noise stopped. Whether Kylo had turned the set off or merely paused it Hux wasn’t sure, and felt certain it would ruin the mood to check, but he let his mind dwell guiltily on the silence for a moment anyway. 

The weird sensory deprivation thing he’d gotten himself into right now might just be his husband’s attempt to make him more comfortable. For the sake of sleeping for fucks sake, not for anything else. If that was the case then Hux was a little embarrassed at how hard he’d gotten all of a sudden.

Kylo was just doing something nice, not trying to seduce him.

A flat surface of upward force pressed against his lower back and hips, lifting them from the bed for an instant before everything on his lower half was suddenly gone. Jeans, socks, shoes, boxers- all travelled swiftly down his legs to land on the floor with a thud.

Hux groaned as his cock slapped against his belly after catching in the waistband of his boxers.

Okay, maybe Kylo wasn’t just making him comfortable.

The amused hum from the other end of the bed was the only warning he got. 

His cock was still shifting with gravity when a warm wet mouth closed around it with enthusiasm. 

“Holy fuck, Kylo!!”

From no sensation to feeling the head bump against the back of Kylo’s throat in less than a second was overwhelming to say the least. Keeping the pillow against his face with one hand he groped blindly for Kylo’s head with the other, uncertain whether Kylo was really touching him or if this was just another trick of his.

His fingers sank into tangled product-stiff locks, and Kylo sank down another inch on his cock. Then he swallowed, and Hux had no choice but to hold on for what would be a very short ride towards his orgasm. 

Pressure without a point of origin danced over his prostate inside and out. Waves of muscle tightened over his cock as Kylo forced his way down, down, down. Kylo’s nose nuzzled into his pubic hair for a moment before he pulled off with a gasp and repeated the manoeuvre. 

Kylo’s technique lacked finesse. It was was messy and loud, with ample drool and a constant gasping hum of satisfaction, but there was an eagerness that made Hux’ toes curl fondly. Whatever else Hux might say about it Kylo was certainly trying his best.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, the internal pressure combined with a deep syncopated pattern of swallows, and Hux’ hips snapped up from the bed again with an orgasm that turned his vision white. 

Under his hand Kylo made a noise of protest but didn’t bother trying to pull back until the last pulse of cum had been swallowed and Hux was softening against his tongue.

“Jayzus.” Hux muttered into the pillow still resting on his face.

“Nope, just Kylo.” Came the cheeky reply from the bottom of the bed. It sounded a little rough, but then who wouldn’t after such a frenzied two minutes of deepthroating… Hux felt a blush rush over his face and down his chest when he realised how quickly he’d come.

He tried to sit up, determined to apologise, or at least defend his honour, but his legs were oddly unresponsive. 

Hux threw aside the pillow and pushed up on his elbows to look down the bed. Kylo was using telekinesis to put his boxers back on, but he was mostly failing because he was distracted.

“Are you already eating again?!”

“Mmphh… no.” Kylo said thickly around a chicken drumstick. 

Hux tried and failed to reach the fabric being inexpertly looped around his ankles. “That must taste delightful.”

“ ‘s under seasoned,” Kylo shrugged. “Go to sleep.”

“Oh no, you don’t get to blow me then dismiss me like that, get up here,” Hux gave the almost-order with a misplaced hint of triumphant when the waistband caught in his fingers for a moment before it danced away again. 

“I sorted myself out in the shower,” Kylo said, gesturing with his chicken in a way that made Hux’ boxers shift through the air like they were being controlled by the world’s perviest poltergeist. “I’m just gonna watch this and finish my supper.”

Damn it, maybe he just wanted to be held, was that too much to ask?

“You can do all that while cuddling me and being my pillow, Kylo... FOR FUCKS SAKE LET GO OF MY UNDERPANTS!”

There was a sharp snap followed by a double hiss that sounded exactly like the elasticated waistband of a pair of Calvin Klein boxer-briefs hitting an oversensitive set of genitals and the reaction of both snapper and snappee. 

“Sorry…”

“Just… get up here.” 

Kylo complied, helpfully righting the state of his husband’s underwear as he went. By hand this time. 

If Hux’ voice had suddenly gone up an octave, Kylo knew better than to comment.

* * *

 Hux woke to brilliant daylight, gentle fingers stroking through his hair, and an iPad resting against his forehead. The firm metal back kept nudging his nose every time Kylo tried to scroll around the page.

“Seriously?” He muttered, his voice thick with too much sleep and not nearly enough hydration. 

“I’ve only got two hands, Hux, how else am I going to book a character breakfast  _ and  _ cuddle you at the same time?!” Kylo replied, flicking the edge of the screen so it nudged Hux again.

Hux blinked.

“Did you forget the whole ‘having telekinetic powers’ thing again?” 

The pressure on his face easing was the only response he got to that question. Still, it was enough. He sighed and settled in against Kylo’s warm pecs again for almost long enough to fall asleep before some of the other words finally made it into his brain.

“What the fuck is a ‘character breakfast’?”

“You can have breakfast with like, Mickey Mouse…”

“Kylo… you’re thirty years old. You’re a grown man. It’s probably not actually possible for a man to get more grown than you without the application of steroids, or possibly black magic. You can’t seriously want to have dinner with the Grinch or something…”

The temperature in the room dropped and Hux realised too late that maybe he should have stopped talking sooner. 

“I can’t have breakfast with  _ The  _ Grinch here,” Kylo began coldly, “because he’s a Universal Studios character but I could have breakfast with  _ a _ grinch by just going into the kitchenette and making you an omelette…”

“Kylo, I’m sorry…”

“But I thought we were here to have fun…”

“Kylo, you can’t…”

“And I’ve wanted to have breakfast with Ariel since I was three years old, so…”

“Kylo-it’s-one-in-the-afternoon!” Hux said in a rush, determined to cut his husband off before he got any deeper into the monologue of ‘things Leia had promised but never found the time to do with her son’. “If it means that much to you we can sort something out, but it’s long past breakfast now.”

“Oh. Okay then.”

Hidden behind the iPad Hux rolled his eyes. Who knew a resort holiday could be this stressful.

* * *

Something was wrong.  


Something was very, very wrong but Hux couldn’t work out quite what. 

The room seemed much like it had been when he left to go in the shower- a few more clothes scattered across the floor from Kylo’s daily sartorial panic; straighteners and hair products abandoned by the television; Kylo himself working on the buckles of his boots.

Hux dressed absentmindedly, confident enough in the boring uniformity of his wardrobe to focus all his attention on the mystery. 

It was like a spot-the-difference puzzle, and the challenge was slowly driving him insane.

“Are you okay?” Kylo asked, finally satisfied with the fit of his shoes.

“Yeah, why?”

Kylo turned to face him and pointed at his legs, “you’re trying to put jeans on over your jeans.”

Hux didn’t hear the comment. “Kylo… where did your tattoos go?!”

All of them were gone. Well, the multitude of tattoos that usually decorated his arms, chest, and shoulders were missing at least- the rest of him was covered by a stretched out muscle shirt and skinny jeans as always.

Biting his lip in silence Kylo looked away while an embarrassed blush spread across about seventy percent of his face. A section of right cheek remained stubbornly peach-toned. 

“Are you wearing Dermablend?” Hux kicked off the second pair of jeans clinging to his ankles and stepped across the room to peer at his husband’s face. “Kylo… why are you hiding your scars?”

Just like his tattoos the scars on his shoulder and chest from the red-hot-sword-fight accident had vanished too. 

Hux reached out to lift Kylo’s face by the chin, but when he flinched Hux decided to run his hand over Kylo’s shoulder instead. His hands were shaking with concern, but even then he recognised that the texture under his palm was wrong. 

“Are you wearing a nylon shirt?!”

Kylo shrugged.

“You know you’re beautiful, right?” Hux said, far more earnestly than he’d intended. When Kylo only gave a disbelieving huff in response Hux felt his stomach roil with something akin to fear. He didn’t have a shirt on yet, and it felt strange to pull Kylo to his chest like there was much comfort to be offered by his bony frame, but what else could he do while his heart was breaking?

“I don’t want to frighten the kids.” Kylo whispered against Hux’ own chest tattoo, the anatomical heart impaled on a burning sword that he’d gotten the day after their Vegas wedding.

“Kylo.” He stopped, unsure how to word what he wanted to say. “This is Disney World. There will be seven foot tall cartoon characters with giant heads. There’ll be real life fictional villains roaming around the place. Why would anyone be scared of a guy just going about his business? You’re big, but you’re nothing compared to Goofy.”

At least Kylo laughed at that.

“Are you going to go swimming in that thing?” Hux continued. His fingers pulled at the fabric in irritation. “Is it like a flesh coloured scuba suit? Do you want me to wear one too? At least you have a cool story to go with your scars! You could literally stand outside  _ the Pirates of the Caribbean _ ride and give lectures on precisely what ‘don’t try this at home kids!’ means.”

Kylo looked up at him solemnly, one large hand lifting to close over the knee of Hux’ jeans. Hux didn’t have a ‘cool’ believable story to go with his scars, the publicly acceptable version of his story was just scary. 

“Do you want me to cover my scars, Kylo?”

“No.”

Hux traced the path of the scar that ran from Kylo’s shoulder to his brow with the pad of his thumb. Covered or not Hux always knew precisely where it was, and just which nerve endings to caress to get Kylo shivering under his hands.

Again he asked, “you know you’re beautiful, right?” 

Kylo’s mouth twisted into that semi-perpetual pout for just long enough for Hux to think he’d repeat the denial. 

“I’m fucking amazing,” he said at last, pout transforming into a toothy grin. “But I still have to cover my tats.”

“The dress-code advice only mentioned offensive tattoos,” Hux frowned as he tried to remember all of Kylo’s tattoos. That was a challenge in itself. “I thought all your swear words were below to the waist.” 

“Hux, I have ‘beautiful prick’ between my shoulders and ‘this ain’t a scene, it’s a  _ goddamn _ arms race’ on my bicep.”

Oh, yeah. So he did. He’d gotten that first one after the wedding too… 

“You could just… wear a shirt with sleeves. You know. Like a normal person.”

Kylo stared at Hux. Hux stared at Kylo. 

They burst out laughing. 

“You’re going to sweat like a pig in that bodystocking, you know.” Hux said between chuckles. “I can literally count the times you’ve worn real clothes in my presence on both hands. You’ll never survive six weeks here in that.”

“Shit.”

“You forgot this wasn’t a day trip, didn’t you?”

“Yeeaaaah.”

Hux scrubbed at his face. His hands were still shaking. This wasn’t just emotion. He had to eat.

“Take that thing off.” He sighed, tugging at the nylon fabric. “Get me a sharpie. I’m gonna censor you. Though I still say ‘goddamn’ isn’t a real swear word.”

“Hux, this is Disney. ‘Dang’ is probably a swear here.”

* * *

“I lost my wristband.”  


Hux sighed for the thirty-sixth time in a hour and pressed the heels of his hands against his eye sockets. 

They’d only left the room three minutes ago, how the hell had Kylo managed to lose that creepy little tracker already? The company had already put the chip that served as a combined door-key, park-ticket and ride-pass into a brightly coloured rubber wristband to avoid just this eventuality. What more could they reasonably do?

“Okay, we can stop the elevator at the next floor and go back to the room…”

“I lost it before the room.”

“What? Last night? And you didn’t say anything?” Kylo had somehow lost it within minutes of arriving… Hux sighed once more with extra feeling. “Fine, we’ll just get it replaced at the front desk.”

“Oh, I don’t need a new one, I can just-” Kylo waved a languid hand through the air, their shorthand signal for telepathic control. 

“No.”

“What?”

“You’re not going to spend the next six weeks handwaving Donald Duck and co into submission. I will not be party to you doing that. We’ve finally found it, the line I will not cross- cartoon character psychic fraud. You’re getting the wristband.”

* * *

Perhaps it was hunger, or lack of caffeine, or the lingering after effects of driving nearly 300 miles with little rest, but when Hux saw the alternative to the wristbands, he just couldn’t help himself.  


While Kylo stared out of the lobby doors towards the monorail station Hux handed over the extra money with a smile that some might have characterised as ‘nasty’.

“Kylo, darling…” Hux wasn’t much for public displays of affection but Kylo was, and so his target leaned down happily to meet his pursed lips in a gentle kiss. 

[click]

Kylo actually tried to look at the side of his head for a moment like a dog trying to catch its own tail, before he resorted to using the selfie camera on his phone to look at the thing now dangling from his ear. 

“Why is there a giant Minnie Mouse head clipped through my tunnel?”

“I’m hoping that will be harder to lose. The chip from the wristband is in the middle of it.”

They looked at each other for a long moment. 

It was Kylo who finally said what they were both thinking. “It’s gonna fly off on the first roller coaster.”

“Yeah you’re right, this is a terrible idea.”

“I wonder if it’d still work clipped to my prince alb-” He stopped talking when Hux slapped a hand over his mouth. 

“Stop. Talking.”

Kylo grinned again and took his hand. 

“Ah well, at least it looks good.” He said as he led the way out of the hotel. “Now come on, I need to show you something. You know there’s nothing like a bonafide electrified...”

“Kylo Ren, if you even think of singing the monorail song from The Simpsons I swear I’ll kick you onto the tracks without a moment’s hesitation.”

“Spoilsport.”

It was going to be a very long holiday, and not necessarily in a good way.

* * *

   


“How.” It was unthinkable. Unimaginable. Inconceivable. “How?!”

Kylo laughed even as Hux hauled him bodily away from Belle’s Village in a desperate attempt to evade security.

“How did you hide five dozen raw eggs?!” Hux hissed directly in Kylo’s ear as they ducked and wove through the crowds. “You’re barely dressed! You don’t even have real pockets in those stupid jeans! Sixty hens eggs! Where did you even find sixty hens eggs?!!”

Kylo opened his mouth to answer but Hux steamrolled on. 

“How can a fictional character have a restraining order against someone!? How is that even possible?! What the fuck did you do to the last Gaston that you’re not allowed within thirty feet of a man who doesn’t actually exist?! What the fu…”

There was no other option. Kylo just had to kiss him or the ranting would go on for the rest of the day. 

Someone tutted behind them. 

Despite his previous complaints about Kylo’s inappropriate behaviour it was Hux that started to make a non-family-friendly gesture. At least Kylo know his husband well enough to avert disaster. 

He caught Hux’ slender fingers and dragged him away again, almost at a run.

“There’s a path between here and Tomorrowland that leads through the trees. It’ll be quiet in there. Come on.”

* * *

Although it was relatively quiet, the path was far busier than Hux would have expected given that it bypassed all the rides and eateries. In fact the only thing it led to was a smoking area hidden behind the Tomorrowland speedway. Scores of agitated parents in need of a nicotine fix milled around, smoking as quickly as they could.  


Kylo, on the other hand, took his time with the one clove cigarette he’d rationed himself for the day. Sitting cross legged on the ground in front of their bench with his arm pressed against Hux’ shin, they sat in peace for a while.

“I still want to know about Gaston,” Hux said at last in an uncharacteristically benevolent tone that barely shook their companionable silence. Now that they weren’t running from anyone he was feeling relatively relaxed. The mood might not last once he’d heard the story but for now...

“Dude can’t take a friendly push-up challenge,” Kylo shrugged and blew a smoke ring towards the sky. “Apparently paying Aladdin to sit on your shoulders is ‘cheating’ and calling him a fraud is ‘against the spirit of the park’.”

“You got into a fight with a character actor at the happiest place on earth and you decided to come back with a follow up gastronomic challenge? Honestly… that’s probably the most Kylo Ren thing you’ve ever done.” Hux shook his head. “Please don’t do that again, I really don’t want to get kicked out of here.”

“I doubt I could hide that many eggs from you twice.” Kylo gave Hux’ leg a friendly nuzzle, even when Hux flicked his ear.

“Okay, correction- do not do anything to, with, or near the Gaston actor… no,  _ any actor _ that might get us kicked out. Understood?”

The expression on Kylo’s face didn’t inspire confidence, and the reply he gave when he finished the last drag on his cigarette didn’t help. “You’re not my real m… hey, can you hear that?”

“I’m serious Kylo, don’t…” He stopped too. There  _ was _ a sound, just on the edge of hearing, coming from somewhere under his arse. “What is that?”

Beside him Kylo had turned to peer under Hux’ knees, his backside poking comically out from beneath the bench. 

While he waited for a reply Hux casually reached forward to tugged the hem of Kylo’s shirt down over his tramp stamp tattoo. That was another one they’d have censor if Kylo insisted on crawling around on the floor.

“Here kitty-kitty-kitty.”

Something mewed.

“Come on lovely kitty.”

The mew turned into a hiss. 

“Ah ha! Got ya!!” There was a lot of thrashing and some very distracting wiggling while Kylo backed out of the tight space, but he finally held up his prize for Hux to inspect. “Kitty!”

The animal in Kylo’s hands was about a foot long with yellow slitted eyes, monochrome stripes, sharp teeth, a loud hiss, and scales all over its body.

“That’s an alligator,” Hux said, flatly stating the obvious while also trying desperately not to draw anyone else’s attention to Kylo’s insane behaviour. 

Kylo shook his head. “No, it’s a Floridian Swamp Cat,” he said, holding the creature up to his face and cooing at it like it was some kind of infant. “Famous cryptid.”

“It’s a fucking baby alligator.”

“Floridian Swamp  _ Kitten _ then, if you wanna be picky. Ah shit!” 

The warmth of Kylo’s hands must have woken the alligator up just enough for it to progress from irritated hissing to all out snapping and thrashing. Of course, Kylo dropped it, valuing his thumbs over any kind of ‘hilarious’ joke, but he caught it with a wave of his fingers just before it hit the floor. The alligator writhed angrily in the air for a moment before it flew off into the bushes and vanished. 

Something under the bench mewed again.

“Don’t even think about it,” Hux said when Kylo bent to look into the shadows. “We’re going to go slather you in hand sanitizer before you catch salmonella or something.” He reached out and tugged on Kylo’s hair to enforce his point. 

Kylo moaned in a low and totally inappropriate way.

“Or maybe we’ll just go back to the hotel.”

* * *

The bath was big enough to fit them both.  


It had to be some kind of miracle. 

They were both over six feet- and Kylo was built like a tank- yet here they were, sitting comfortably together in hot soothing water. 

In the end they hadn’t returned to their room straight away. Even using the abundant transport within the park it wouldn’t have been a quick journey, and they’d both gotten distracted by the sci-fi themed attractions almost immediately. 

Besides, they’d been together for years. The ‘now, now, now’ urgency of arousal wasn’t nearly so irresistible as perhaps it had once been. 

Yep, they were dignified old men now. 

They definitely hadn’t done anything inappropriate together in the accessible toilets near Space Mountain. 

Whatever may or may not have happened- the thought of which was now turning Hux’ ears a lovely shade of embarrassed red- they’d stayed in the park and spent the afternoon exploring, eating, and generally getting very, very lost. 

They’d finally watched the fireworks from the balcony of some restaurant or other, quietly holding hands under the table while the food turned cold and the beer warmed up in the Florida heat. 

It had been a strange kind of almost-anniversary. Not on the same day or in the same place, but similar enough to turn their hearts soft and warm. Their first Christmas together Kylo had impulsively driven them south from DC and tried to break them into the park over a fence to see the New Year fireworks. Now here they were- married and newly wealthy thanks to the more than timely death of Hux’ grandfather- and everything had been perfect.

While the park wound down for the night they’d wandered- loved up and discreetly leaning on each other- until they’d been gently encouraged to return to the hotel by tired staff.

By the time they’d gotten back it was already tomorrow and suddenly the thirty thousand steps they’d both walked weighed heavily on their bones. The bath was a blessing. 

Kylo had almost melted against the back of the tub with his hair looped up in a messy bun to keep it out of the water they’d managed to slosh everywhere. He had Hux between his legs, back-to-chest, and was idling running his fingertips through his pubic hair to make him squirm. 

“I’m not a cat,” Hux griped. He pretended to be annoyed, but the sensation was probably the only thing keeping him awake.

“We could have gotten a cat today if you hadn’t been so leery about it.”

“One- we are not getting a pet, we spend more time away from the apartment than in it, and I doubt Dopheld could keep anything fed when ghosts struggle just to turn pages most days; and two- That. Was. A. Bloody. Alligator.”

“Floridian Swamp Cat! It could have lived in the back of the Fury!” 

Hux flung a handful of water back over his shoulder.

“Hey! Watch the hair!!”

Kylo retaliated, turning the gently petting strokes into tickling; which only make Hux squirm harder and turn in his arms to dump more water over Kylo’s head. Except the change in position brought them crotch-to-crotch and good natured wrestling shifted almost instantly to hurried but satisfying frottage. 

The water wasn’t quite the best lubricant, and the angle left much to be desired, but damn it, they were in love and anything would do in the moment.

Five minutes- and a bathroom floor left swimming in soapsuds- later, and Hux was panting against Kylo’s shoulder while his husband’s huge hands rubbed soothing circles against his lower back. At least the water level was low enough that most of their cum was splattered up Kylo’s abs rather than contaminating the bath. Without a world Hux shuffled down far enough to lick him clean.

“So much for not rushing through the first day,” Kylo said to the ceiling. He was shaking a little from exhaustion, but there was no way either of them would mention it. 

“Mmm,” Hux hummed in agreement against his stomach, “we should have a quiet day tomorrow.”

“Put the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door and spend all day in bed.”

“We already slept in til after noon, we can’t spend the whole holiday sleeping.”

“Who said anything about sleep?” Kylo asked. “But I guess if you want me to fuck you on the couch or in the breakfast nook…”

Hux reached up and patted Kylo’s cheek affectionately. “So romantic.”

* * *

All Hux had wanted from this vacation was a chance to sit still and rest someplace warm with an all-inclusive bar. He hadn’t expected Kylo’s enthusiasm.  


He hadn’t realised it was actually possible to spend an entire day at the same attraction and  _ still  _ enjoy the ride on the 25th iteration. But Kylo loved the freefall of the Twilight Zone tower and Hux loved listening to him happily telling amused tourists tall-but-entirely-true tales about their adventures with ghosts and cryptids. Half of them thought he was part of the attraction.

The Haunted Mansion staff knew who they were. They pretended they didn’t but one of them seemed to be keeping a tally, and Kylo said another one kept checking out Hux’ butt whenever they walked in, which was often.

Whatever they did, and wherever they went, if they were in the Disney parks Kylo saved his cigarette for that same weirdly isolated smoking area. He didn’t even bother to light it half the time.

Something was still making mewing noises under the bench. 

Hux was starting to think it might actually be the sound a creaking screw or faulty joint because there genuinely didn’t seem to be anything there. Kylo had tried food. He’d tried milk against Hux’ advice. He’d even insisted on driving around Orlando looking for a pet store to buy catnip and treats. Still nothing but a solitary mew.

They were on their last week. They’d spent Christmas Day eating too many tiny desserts and watching the fireworks, and they were planning to do the same again on New Years. Now it was that weird ‘twixmas’ period between the two where the days blurred together and they were too full of food to do much more than wander. 

Which was how they found themselves back at that same damn bench, but after dark for once. 

Hux tried his best not to roll his eyes when Kylo immediately crouched down when they were still ten feet from the bench. 

It was especially hard to resist the urge when Kylo whispered, “do you still have any of that catnip?” like Hux was some kind of walking convenience store. 

He went to shove his hands sulkily into his pockets when he discovered, much to his surprise and irritation, that he did actually have a small catnip mouse.

“This is stupid you know.” He said as he threw it vaguely in Kylo’s direction. “I checked with the park staff, and reddit- there’s never been cats here. That’s Disney _ land _ . If there were cats here the ‘gators would have eaten them long ago. Oh no, what the fuck are you doing?”

Kylo had set fire to the toy mouse, holding it by the tail and letting it turn slowly in the breeze so it burned evenly. He was watching it intently, almost like he was counting something. He didn’t even notice the way Hux kept checking behind them for any sign of security guards who might accuse them of arson.

This was not how he wanted to end the vacation. 

With a sudden swift flick of his wrist Kylo dropped the mouse and threw  _ something _ towards the asphalt just in front of the bench. Something else, small and white and almost cloud-like lept out to intercept it. 

Oh. Of course. To give something to a ghost you first had to destroy it. Wait, hadn’t Hux taught Kylo that? It was hard to remember who had shown who what after so many years.

“Hux! Look!! It’s a kitten!” Kylo turned to look at him with a grin of satisfaction. “You can’t stop me from keeping this one! No feeding or cleaning involved! 100% hypoallergenic.”

It was definitely a kitten- a very small, long haired, entirely transparent kitten wearing a tiny transparent bow. Although it was drained of colour Hux seemed to think it would probably be pink. Not a feral cat. A gift perhaps that had been bought for a fan and then… Hux didn’t want to think about that next part. 

He’d met a lot of things that were dead- or unalive- since he was a small boy, but too-young things always bothered him the most.

“If you want to keep her then you have to find what’s tethering her here,” he said quietly. “This is hard mode Kylo, she can’t tell you anything.”

“Can’t she?”

Hux was expecting to have an argument about psychically connecting with non-human ghosts when Kylo waved his hands and somehow managed to move the ghostly toy mouse towards him. It was choppy and uneven, the concentration involved in moving an incorporeal object making sweat pour down Kylo’s spine, but the kitten didn’t seem to mind. 

She bounced and lept after it, taking it from Kylo’s grip more than once, but always finally reaching a point she couldn’t move past. She mewled in frustration, tiny paws scrabbling useless at the dirt, but she got no further. 

From there Kylo led her around in a circle, tracing out the exact space she could possibly occupy. The centre point was under the far left edge of the bench, close to a trash can. 

A few seconds of handwaving had a very old scrap of fabric flying towards Kylo’s hand and the kitten followed him with a joyful bounce in her step. 

The fabric had indeed been a pink ribbon once, now filthy with dried dust and dark brown marks that both of them decided not to consider too closely. 

“That’ll be fragile,” Hux said while the kitten tried ineffectually to eat his shoe laces. “We should get something to keep it safe. If you want to keep her.”

* * *

Kylo lounged against the railing of their private balcony- champagne glass in one hand, cheap bottle of beer in the other- looking unfairly gorgeous for a man wearing nothing but a pair of shorts with ‘juicy’ on the butt and a large silver set glass locket. The pink of the ribbon inside was just visible in low light pouring from their room.  


‘Millicent’ was curled up on his shoulder purring like a jet engine, entirely unaware that dead cat didn’t need to sleep. Having noticed her habit of sleeping so much Kylo had tried to name her after the witch from Sleeping Beauty. But apparently a man with a failed Scrabble selection for a name couldn’t manage to remember ‘Maleficent’ properly. 

“Millicent is close enough, you grumpy bastard,” Kylo rumbled, not bothering to turn to look at him, “I don’t think  _ people _ with names like ‘Donal’ and ‘Armitage’ have any place casting judgement.”

Hux smiled to himself. “Good point.” 

It was all of two steps to join him at the railing and claim his own champagne glass from the table. The park was spread below them, lights glittering in the darkness, so similar to the last time they tried to do this. At least the venue was more comfortable this time around.

A small gesture with his fingers and Kylo’s beer floated to the table, leaving his hand free to wrap around Hux’ shower damp waist. It was strange, the way Kylo’s physical presence always seemed to surprise him every time they touch.

“I thought this year we might watch the fireworks from closer up, but somehow this is better.”

“Mmmm, yeah, this is better.” Kylo said softly against his ear. He raised his glass while he toyed with the belt loops of Hux’ jeans, urging him closer against his side. “To us. To next time.”

The smile turned into a grin at Kylo’s insistence on coming back. Hux tapped their glasses. “To gradual improvement and enjoying the journey.”

It didn’t really matter where they were- it was enough to be together, always moving forward.

Between them Millicent gave a sleepy meep of approval.


End file.
